Taxing The Poor: The Only Tax Increase Republicans Support

[Donnachaidh]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/25/278175/taxing-the-poor-republicans-support/

Throughout the debate about raising the federal debt ceiling, Republicans have denied deal after deal because Democrats insist on adding new revenues to trillions of dollars in spending cuts. Republicans have opposed repealing oil and gas subsidies, removing a tax loophole for corporate jet owners, letting the Bush tax cuts expire, and all other forms of revenue Democrats have suggested. Raising taxes in a weak economy, they argue, is unthinkable — even if conservative patriarch Ronald Reagan did just that.

But there is one tax increase some Republicans seem to favor: raising taxes on the working poor, senior citizens, and other low-income Americans.

While they fight the expiration of the budget-busting Bush tax cuts, Republicans have continually cited a report that shows that 51 percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes, even admitting that middle- and lower-class Americans need to shoulder a larger burden in deficit reduction efforts. Here is a sample of Republicans who have made that argument:

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): In a May 5 appearance on MSNBC, Hatch said, “The place where you’ve got to get revenues has to come from the middle class,” saying the poor needed to understand “that there’s a civic duty on the part of every one of us to help this government to, uh, to be better.” On the Senate floor July 7, Hatch said the poor “need to share some of the responsibility” for deficit reduction.

More at the link --

[indepat]

1. Yeah, those 50% of Americans who own 2 1/2% of the wealth are surely some greedy

SOBs who stockpile wealth rather than paying their fair share of taxes. :patriot:

[starroute]

2. Beware of the phrase "broadening the tax base"

That's one of those seemingly vacuous expressions that can slip by because it doesn't seem to mean much. But what it *does* mean is taxing people who aren't taxed presently. And they're gearing up to push it for all it's worth.

[Auntie Bush]

3. Rethuglicans don't seem to realize that if they tax the poor and the old more they

will end up on welfare and end up costing the Gov. more money and increasing the debt. S T U P I D !